A protester pulls back the cord on a slingshot in Taksim Square in Istanbul as riot police re-entered Istanbul's protest square today, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at firework-hurling demonstrators in a fresh escalation of unrest after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would meet with protest leaders.

Protestors clash with Turkish riot policemen on the way to Taksim Square in Istanbul. Turkey's Islamic-rooted government apologized today to wounded protestors and said it had "learned its lesson" after days of mass street demonstrations that have posed the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decade in office.

Demonstrators try to extinguish a fire in Istanbul. What started as an outcry against a local development project has snowballed into widespread anger against what critics say is the government's increasingly conservative agenda and authoritarian tactics.

Young protesters shout anti-government slogans during a demonstration in Ankara. Turkey's Islamic-rooted government said Tuesday it had "learned its lesson" and appealed for an end to mass street protests that have convulsed the country for days in the worst political crisis in a decade.

Young Turks clash with security forces in Ankara. Protests in Istanbul and several other Turkish cities appear to have subsided, after days of fierce clashes following a police crackdown on a peaceful gathering.

Protesters gather on Taksim Square, a day after Turkish police pulled out of Istanbul's iconic square following a second day of violent clashes between protesters and police over a controversial development project.

Police use tear gas to disperse protesters outside Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's working office in Besiktas Istanbul, during a third day of clashes sparked by anger at his Islamist-rooted government.

Volunteer doctors help injured protesters inside a mosque during a clash with Turkish riot police as they try to reach the office of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan at Besiktas district in Istanbul.

Protesters gather on Taksim Square, a day after Turkish police pulled out of Istanbul's iconic square following a second day of violent clashes between protesters and police over a controversial development project.

Unrest in Turkey continues

[Updated — June 11, 2013] Turkish police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters adorned in gas masks and slinging Molotov cocktails in central Taksim Square early Tuesday. The clashes marked the first major violence in the iconic square since scores of anti-government protesters occupied it more than a week ago.

[Updated — June 4, 2013] Turkey’s deputy prime minister offered an apology Tuesday for a bruising police crackdown on antigovernment demonstrators as clashes between authorities and protesters appeared to diminish in a fifth day of nationwide unrest.

Police seemed to back off from their earlier aggressive use of tear gas and water cannons against people gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, epicenter of the protest movement.

[Updated — June 3, 2013] What began as local dispute about threatened green space in this metropolis has morphed into a nationwide movement protesting what critics say is the heavy-handed style and increasingly Islamist agenda of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

After four days of protests, however, the staying power of a spontaneous movement lacking national leadership is far from clear. Erdogan retains substantial support, has his eyes on a run for president next year and seems unlikely to be forced from office.

A weekend of protests left Turkey reeling, with thousands of dissidents taking to the streets after a brutal police crackdown, presenting the most cohesive challenge to the country’s leadership in its more than a decade in power.